After a season of being living up to the English translation of his nickname of ‘the Maniac’, Andrea Iannone finally got it right to take his first MotoGP win in Austria.
It marked a key moment for the Italian who was set to be Ducati’s next big thing but instead finds himself heading to Suzuki for 2017 due to his lacklustre performances.
He had retired from seven of his last 13 races before Spielberg, including wiping out his teammate Andrea Dovizioso in Argentina and Jorge Lorenzo in Barcelona, and in doing so undid all the work he had done throughout 2015 to build up his reputation.
Iannone had had a worst finishing position of eighth all season last year before the first of those retirements came at Motegi.He had a contract on the table for 2017, which would have seen him alongside Jorge Lorenzo, only for his poor run of results see it taken away and handed to Dovizioso.
There is perhaps no doubt that Iannone is the slightly faster of the two riders at Ducati, but Dovi is the experienced hand, the more consistent of the pair.
However, when Iannone does gets it right, as he did at the Red Bull Ring, it is a reminder to the management that perhaps they were a little too quick to lose faith in him.
It’s true that most of us spent the race just waiting for him to make a mistake, but he didn’t instead picking his moment to make the race-winning move and carrying the pace to the checkered flag.
The confidence that will give Iannone going forward, if Suzuki can continue their rise, as they have through Maverick Vinales, then a few years down the line the decision to stick with Dovizioso may look a very wrong one.
But for now, let’s enjoy having Ducati back on top for the first time in six years. Their dominance may have been track dependent, thanks to Spielberg’s straights, but to secure the one-two was certainly no easy feat.
On any tyre combination, of which Iannone’s harder rear selection ultimately helped him prevail over his teammate, the red, Italian machines were unstoppable once they broke out of Yahama’s clutches.
While it likely won’t last in Brno next week, it was good to see the effort that has gone into the re-birth of Ducati rewarded for one weekend at least.
One mention must go to Jorge Lorenzo who finally put a miserable run of results behind him to get back on the podium. It was almost ironic to see the Spaniard recapture his form of old at the same time as his soon to be employers did.
But outside of Ducati, the happiest man heading home is probably Marc Marquez.
The championship leader would have probably finished fifth anyway so unsuited to the track was his Honda, but to do so just a day after dislocating his shoulder and still have a 43-point lead will have felt like a victory by itself.
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